Timing and Follow Up
Maximizing the Effect of Media Relations
This next posting is easy to write, sounds easy to do, and makes perfect sense; in reality, carrying these things out requires planning, diligence, and consistency.
First, the timing of press releases and media events is critical, in order to have time-sensitive information hit the public eye in a coordinated and effective manner. It is also important to give editors time to get your release into their news flow. These days, news outlets have the advantages of technology to theoretically shorten lead time requirements, but they are all working with too few people to cover all the news effectively. Also, breaking news stories will naturally bump press releases out of the loop due to time and space constraints.
Conversely, this is precisely why well written press releases can get published; being able to fill space with a good, short story of interest to an audience, without taking reporters and photographers off of more pressing stories, is always helpful to editors.
You must also consider the different lead times of different publications: newspapers require a few days, magazines at least two weeks, usually more. Thus, press work needs to be tailored to the media contacted, which may be approached as follows;
1) For events, such as opening a new business, adding a significant new product line, etc., a pre-event press release inviting press attendance at the event should be sent out weeks before the event, with follow up releases a few days before the event. Ideally, you will get a follow up from some publications, asking more questions about the event; some attendance, which can lead to an independent story with photos; and the publishing of your press release in time to draw people to your event. Pre-event press releases should go to all levels of media, even though magazines probably won't publish them (they may post them on their website and other digital media, though).
It is a good idea to ascertain the preferred lead time of important media outlets, and to set up a marketing calendar to keep media work in the pipeline in a timely manner.
2) Follow-up to events is of critical importance. Have a general outline of your planned event beforehand, and add to it based on how the event actually unfolds. Take some good digital photos of the important people and moments. From this, write a follow up press release to send out to all media outlets, with the aim of getting coverage of the event. The most important point is to get your operation into the greatest number of publications possible, to help draw customers in greater numbers and frequency.
And, have copies of your original press release, plus any expanded details regarding your enterprise, your self, your key people, what the organization does and for whom, and any additional info about the subject of your original release (i.e., a media package). This is the discipline and diligence part, but it is important as reporters will draw heavily on this package as a way of confirming the accuracy of their final report.
3) More follow up: Any press and media work, and any marketing literature, should refer people to your website or other online and digital assets. Make sure that these are up to date, and contain information about the subject of your press release. Marketing is largely about reinforcing your image and presence in people's minds, and connecting on a personal level with people who will become your regular clients. The subject of keeping websites is an interesting one; I have noticed that business people become rather defensive at the suggestion that their websites are not up to date (myself included) I have some thoughts on how to minimize the work while maximizing the effect of websites, which will come at a later posting.
4) Media works regarding new products, a new service, or anything which is not time sensitive, obviously have a less urgent time frame for publicizing and getting published. Here, a "roll-out" press release may be used, in which the unveiling of the product or service is reported as a news story about an event which has already happened. This should of course be preceded by a pre roll out release aimed at getting more immediate press coverage of the event.
5) Finally, monitor the publications contacted as much as possible to see how they respond to your press release, how they follow up, if they publish it. These days some publications will simply have their advertising department contact you, which you need to consider with caution; a good publication wants advertisers who will be repeat customers, and so will only contact you if they think your business is a good fit with their demographic. But, others will simply see you as a possible ad sale, so be prudent in your decision making.
And, keep at least a simple record of how many calls and sales you get from those publications which do cover your story. This will give you some solid direction towards which media outlets will be most worthwhile for your business or non-profit to advertise in.
